surgicalsense Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 Amazing, excellent build..... Great read. Link to comment
kgoldy Posted October 19, 2011 Author Share Posted October 19, 2011 While I was away, the SPS from Mr Coral have finally started to encrust significantly, so it looks like the no-water-change chemistry has settled into where it belongs. I don't know what the eff is going on... But I got like a 1/4 inch of growth out of one of my SPS frags in like 48 hrs. Sweet! I'm almost tempted to test my water and see what the results look like. I'm kind of curious what trace elements are in the foods I use... I pretty much quit using carbon (the filter socks the carbon is in have encrusted over with coraline) so the only export is via light skimming. Link to comment
ajmckay Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 Hey KG! Nice progress on the tank. Some major up's & downs for sure, but I suppose that's part of the hobby. Myself? Since getting my tank set up initially it's been in a state of "homeostasis". I took it down to 1 fish, and all I do pretty much is top off every other day and feed a few pellets! Hahaha... Actually I've had some significant house projects take precedence such that I've only posted a few times on here since May... I'm starting to get back into it though, and your tank is helping/inspiring me to get mine going again. It will probably happen in January, but until then I can at least create a plan and save up some $$. Do you ever see your sexy shrimp? I'm puzzled as well as to why your nems didn't do well... How are the clams doing now? Are you running a filter sock or anything in your display fuge? I must have used crappy spray paint (actually I did, the $.99 wal-mart stuff) because I accidentally scraped a little paint off maneuvering the plumbing and the paint has started to bubble a lot there. It's actually kinda cool because you can see a bunch of worms and pods using it as a hideout! I'll have to snap a pic once I clean it up a bit... Finally, how are the mangroves doing? I'm going to go read the build thread for the HOB fuge... Link to comment
kgoldy Posted October 21, 2011 Author Share Posted October 21, 2011 aj! Long time no see! Glad to have you back on, and to imagine- me providing you inspiration? My fuge (the first one) is entirely your fault! Haha. It's now a mantis home, packed to the brim with chaeto, and not as display worthy as I originally intended... But to do the no-water change thing it's kind of necessary. Most of the people who see my system have no idea what they're looking at, so they think it's all pretty regardless of the fact that it's all just weeds to me. No, I don't run a filter sock. I had two bags of carbon in there for a while... But let them sit undisturbed for so long that I'm pretty sure they've become rock solid. Other than that, the only mechanical filtration is the skimmer, which I really don't maintain, so it doesn't pull much gunk. I have perfected the art of lazy reefing. Now if only I had the foresight to automate my ATO reservoir refills... Mangroves are doing great. It seems just a little water spraying occasionally makes a HUGE difference. I'm just hoping the roots don't cause problems with the acrylic eventually in the HOB. The roots of the few mangroves that are in the display are starting to really grow out, and look great. It's kind of creating a dark cryptic area right at the top middle of the tank where the lights don't quite reach. Probably a good place for some non-photo corals... Might move my dendro up there since it'd losing the battle against the crazy branching coralline that's growing in my tank. So- Finally got my India pics uploaded, so I can get back to tank pictures. ManhattanReefs.com (the local forum) is posting a how-to on taking aquarium pictures, so hopefully as that blog progresses and I do some studying (and maybe get a tripod), I'll get better at taking worthwhile shots. Here we go- (pics after photobucket stops lagging...) Link to comment
kgoldy Posted October 21, 2011 Author Share Posted October 21, 2011 Clams are doing great, by the way, AJ. So- The only coral in the tank that are not from Mr. Coral are the torches, hammer, and flower pot. All zoos started from 2-5 polyps and have grown out to what you see here. My camera skills don't do most of them justice... but at least you can see the size increase relative to the amount of time they've been in the tank. Picked up this blue mushroom from the LFS. Aiptasia has had it's ass kicked since this pic was taken. When I got back from India there were 6 or 7 big ones in my display, and one in the HOB fuge... I'm getting berghia worms if they pop up again. Although the darth maul paly's are in a fantastic viewing position... They're real tough to take good pics of. 2 heads grew into about 7. Link to comment
kgoldy Posted October 21, 2011 Author Share Posted October 21, 2011 I think that's a green slimer... but really have no idea. Anyway, in this pic you can see that it's finally starting to encrust over the plug. This is the three SPS frags from Mr Coral that survived... No idea what it is, and it's tiny... But it's finally starting to encrust too. Also in a spot that's hard to photograph. Third surviving Mr Coral SPS frag. Purple skelton, orange polyps. Again, no idea what it is, but I love it. Also love the little mini zoas. They've probably doubled in number since I got em. Link to comment
mrcoral.com Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Awesome Tank!! Glad to see the frags doing so well for you!! You have really pick up a ton of growth. Link to comment
FlCandy Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Love your zoas, their colors are so nice! Great looking tank. Link to comment
metrokat Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 How come you have one of everything I'm always eyeballing? That green hammer has my name on a frag when and if you're ready to sell. As do those radioactive greens. Link to comment
HecticDialectics Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 :hi5: on no water changes Nice tank! Love the coralline coverage on the rocks. Link to comment
kgoldy Posted October 21, 2011 Author Share Posted October 21, 2011 candy- thanks. Now if I had some wider spectrum in my lighting, I think they would be really awesome looking. I alternate between flash and no flash when taking pics, because the true color lies between... metro- it's not branching hammer... Not really sure how it grows, but it doesn't seem very "frag-able" to me. Go to tropical island aquarium in deer park already! HD- the secret to no water changes, is you must master the art of lazy. Until you find your inner dirty hippy, you'll find yourself carrying buckets. Haha. I'm convinced that the fine grained sand and slightly deep sandbed acting as a reservoir for nutrients is what makes this tank possible. I'll be adding more oolitic sand as time goes by. The coraline is nuts, it's growing so fast (and branching) that it's overtaking my poor dendro. Link to comment
kgoldy Posted October 22, 2011 Author Share Posted October 22, 2011 Work permitting... I should be getting my frags on Thursday night of this upcoming week. Soooo excited. Huge update coming soon! Edit- Here is the tank my frags are coming from- jerl77's 120 over at ManhattanReefs.com The deal was I dropped off my BC29HQI with all rock, sand, equipment and stand at his place out on eastern Long Island, and he'd give me "a frag of everything he's got" in return. Real cool dude, I sat around and drank a beer with him while he showed me his setup. He's got his tank plumbed to the basement for easy weekly water changes... So jealous. Pic from his thread- Link to comment
kgoldy Posted October 22, 2011 Author Share Posted October 22, 2011 Just did some maintenance on my pumps to get rid of coraline/calcium build up... including my ATO. There was a fair amount of kalk slurry on the bottom of my ATO tank that got sucked up when I put the pump back in. The result was pH shooting up to 9.4, from a normal 8.2. Corals look pissed. Even the most hardy. Dosed with vinegar to compensate, and brought pH back down to normal levels. Please tank, please don't crash. Link to comment
kgoldy Posted October 22, 2011 Author Share Posted October 22, 2011 for the record, vinegar dosing when attempting to counteract an overdose of kalk, works awesome. All but two of my coral are back to looking normal. Flower pot and galaxy are still pissed though... Link to comment
metrokat Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 Hope the chilli turned out good. Link to comment
kgoldy Posted October 24, 2011 Author Share Posted October 24, 2011 Hope the chilli turned out good. Chili is good, but I miss spices... I kept it mild so I don't upset the delicate post-India-belly. Hope in a week or so I can make a more flavorful batch. Vinegar to help the pH spike + reducing my lighting schedule has done wonders to stabilize my pH. All corals are looking normal, with the exception of the galaxy... Which surprises me, because I thought that was the toughest LPS in the tank. Clams never looked upset throughout the whole ordeal with the pH spike... SPS seemed to handle it just fine too. Torches, zoos and paly's- and especially my hammer, had looked pissed as hell. Decided I'm going to frag my purple gorgonian to give to the guy I'm doing the swap with... And I'm giving him my whole dendro. The poor dendro is getting overwhelmed by the damn coraline algae in my tank... So hopefully he can bring it back to what it should be. Link to comment
kgoldy Posted October 25, 2011 Author Share Posted October 25, 2011 So for my whole BC29HQI system (rocks, sand, stand, heater, tank, light, etc.).... plus my ~6 head dendro, a half of my purple gorgonian, and some halimeda... I'm getting this in return- 25 x 3-4 head Acan frags ~18 x Zoanthid frags ~17 x SPS frags 1 x Maxi Mini Anemone 4x4" GSP 4 x Montipora MAYBE 3 x "real high end chalice" (I'm hoping for a piece of the rainbow chalice, but don't have the gall to ask directly for it) MAYBE 2 x favia frags Picking up some stuff this weekend... the rest some time later. so excited! Link to comment
FlCandy Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Ask for it! LOL I would Link to comment
kgoldy Posted October 25, 2011 Author Share Posted October 25, 2011 I just sat down and really looked at the number of the frags I'm getting... and it's like raiding Mr. Coral for $500-$600 worth of frags, ignoring the LIMIT 1 rule, and they're all going to be bigger. w00t! Link to comment
HecticDialectics Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 He probably thinks your cuuuuuuteeeee! oooooo! haha! Link to comment
iball1804 Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 They had better be good. Or we will all eat you. Link to comment
kgoldy Posted October 25, 2011 Author Share Posted October 25, 2011 He probably thinks your cuuuuuuteeeee! oooooo! haha! Sounds like someone's jealous. Preeeeeeview!!! All your Acan are belong to us! Link to comment
metrokat Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 OH MY LORD! MAKE SOME CHILLI! Tank sitter is on duty I was to fly out in the morning but I think I'll take a detour to your arrivals hall instead. @FI where DO you find those cute kat gifs? Link to comment
FlCandy Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 OH MY LORD! MAKE SOME CHILLI! Tank sitter is on duty I was to fly out in the morning but I think I'll take a detour to your arrivals hall instead. @FI where DO you find those cute kat gifs? IDK I just googled animated cat gifs and I got a ton of them! Link to comment
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